1946 Chevy Pickup - One Bay Wonder

I ran across Nick Weber’s beautiful 1946 Chevy one chilly afternoon at Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey. I was perusing the dragstrip’s car show that day, which was loaded up with your typical street rods, muscle cars, and weekend cruisers, when I came upon this gutsy two-toned truck. I was immediately blown away when my eyes focused in on Nick’s creation. The overall level of craftsmanship, let alone the execution of the game plan, barked out “big-money build” to me loud and clear. I just figured it was probably done by one of the large, high-end restoration shops that dot the surrounding area.

The amazing thing is that after talking to Nick, I found out that 95 percent of this radical street brawler was built by the owner himself! And if that wasn’t mind blowing enough, he tells me it was built in a tiny one-car garage at his family’s abode! Interestingly enough, he only sourced out the cushy interior work to a local upholstery shop. That tidbit of information totally blew what was left of my hot rod-infested cerebrum. I had to get the lowdown on this crafty big-block bruiser from the builder himself.

Nick got the inspiration to build his dream truck through one of his dad’s friends. This particular gentleman owned a restoration shop that for some time housed a similar year Chevy truck. Over time, the pickup was modified into a street rod-styled ride specifically for the shop owner himself. But unfortunately the build was never completed, but still, young Nick saw some hope in bringing the same brash Bowtie design to fruition. He just needed the time, the money, and the will to do it.

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So in the spring of 2002, at the age of 16, Nick wheeled home a project ’46 he picked up out of an Auto Trader magazine. He quickly bore down and started to dismantle the truck to see what he had actually bought. He soon realized that the old Chevy had seen much better days. He removed the cab and one front fender from the pickup and put them aside. Regrettably, everything else was not worth saving, and the “mass of mess” ended up going to that big trash heap in the sky.

Even with the bad news, Nick quickly moved ahead. The first order of business was to design and fabricate the chassis. Nick built the custom chassis in-house from scratch, using 2x4 square tubing. A Mustang II front suspension was added up front, complete with RideTech Shockwaves. Out back, resides a four-link suspension, which also features the RideTech setup.

Next up, Nick had to forge the overall shape of the cab that he envisioned in his head. Guidance came in the form of a magazine article that he had read previously on the art of chopping tops. Next, a Sawzall was purchased for the incisions that would help sculpt the body into the desired silhouette.

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He then took to the roofline, chopping 2 inches out of the original stock body. The roof was then pancaked and pie-cut above the doors and windows 1½ inches, tapering it down to zero toward the rear. The fact that these modifications came out looking dead-on perfect fueled Nick’s overall confidence that he could successfully navigate through his build. And luckily, he had some welding experience, which came in handy in tying it all back together.

With his newfound bravado, Nick decided on another modification, stretching the cab 3 inches behind the doors. This would give the cab a roomier feeling overall, though later he realized that another 6 inches would have helped. Next, Nick added the rollcage to the build, as his first thought was to go drag racing with the truck when it was completed. Even though that train of thought would change during the build, he kept the cage just in case the inkling ever arose again.

Out back, the rear fenders and roll pan were hand formed to Nick’s liking. Next, the two-piece center opening hood was modified into a one-piece, forward-opening unit. This brought a modern touch to the ’46. Nick built the oak bed floor from scratch, raising the entire bed to accommodate the radical rear suspension setup.

Once the fabrication mock-up stage was finished, the entire truck was torn down for paint. In his one-bay garage, Nick laid down BASF paint in GM Spice Red, with black over the top. He then wet-sanded and buffed the paint to its brilliant shine. Nick then sprayed the oak bed with no less than 30 coats of automotive clear, and rubbed them out to perfection.

After the body was complete, Nick put his attention to the driveline. He’d bought a 540 big-block to put in the truck, but over time he had got impatient with the speed of the build, so he dumped it into his ’69 Chevelle to see what it could do. And what it could do was boil the back skins of the Chevy A-body. So to replace the 540, he picked up a 502 that sported a potent set of heads and over-the-top valvetrain. The engine would eventually go into the Chevelle, once the truck was completed and ready for the 540.

However, just before the re-transplant, Nick was out one night doing some nasty burnouts with the Chevelle and accidently ran it over 7,000 rpm’s, breaking the snout off the crank. It wasn’t pretty. Only the block and rods survived the decimation of the 540. So now the 502 was going into the Chevelle, and the 540 would be built back up for the truck.

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Nick really wanted to do something different motor-wise for the ’46, as it was apparent to him that a basic motor would look odd in the radical, chopped ride. He started searching around eBay for interesting big-block Chevy parts. One night he ran across an auction for “32-valve Chevy big-block heads.” This interested Nick in a big way, as he never knew these pieces existed. Luckily the price was right and they were only an hour away from his hometown. A couple of days later, the heads were in his garage.

Nick started with a Merlin III 540 block. A Callies stroke crank is hooked up to a set of custom JE pistons for 32-valve heads, which sport 11:1 compression. A Bullet cam 4-and-7 swap, with .600 lift, .270 intake, and .280 exhaust duration, run the valves to perfection.

The heads found on eBay are from Valley Head Service and are the Thunder Power series. Nick himself made the custom sheetmetal tunnel-ram intake, which always draws a crowd. On top sit a pair of 800-cfm Holley carbs. Custom stainless headers lead the spent gasses into a 4-inch exhaust with Borla mufflers. A 4L80E automatic trans with a standalone computer gets the gears shifted properly.

However, with those big heads, Nick soon found that the engine would not fit between the roll bars in the engine bay. And since the truck was already painted and buffed out, it was a big issue. Unfortunately, Nick had to get the old Sawzall out again, cutting the bars and moving them each 1 inch to the outside to clear the big motor. The firewall then had to be repaired and re-sprayed, along with the front frame.

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Once the motor motivation was complete, Nick keyed in on the running gear. He built up a heavy-duty Ford 9-inch rear with 3.90 gears to get the power to the pavement. For stopping power, 14-inch, six-piston-caliper Wilwood brakes up front, and 12-inch four-piston calipers out back do the dirty work. Wheels are Billet Specialties Draft, 19x8 up front, 20x16 out back, and are shod in Nitto rubber: 245/30/19 and 29x18.5x20 respectively, which sport shaved sidewalls.

The interior is graced by custom Corbeau seats, decked out in leather and suede, which is a theme continued throughout the upholstery. Nick built a custom dash to bring a modern touch to the vintage Chevy. A 10-point rollcage encases all this luxury. Another cool feature (besides the hidden taillights) is the fact that Nick kept the original crank-out windshield, but changed it over to an electric-driven unit … pretty trick!

Nick knows all his hard work was well worth it. It’s been done two years now and it gets run quite regularly out on the streets of Central Jersey and Pennsylvania. And he’s not afraid to take it on long runs, as he’s done many of the big shows along the Eastern Seaboard with regularity.

It was a huge amount of work for one guy to handle, and many doubted that he would ever finish. But after nearly a decade of build time, Nick states that it was well worth the time, money, and effort. The “Bowtie Beast from the Backyard” is a truck that shows what you can do with a good game plan, and the will to see it through.